Why You Need a LinkedIn Profile Makeover Now

An open letter to IT and Software marketers...

Dear You,

At your request we’ve reviewed your current LinkedIn profile, and following are our views based on our work generating leads and sales opportunities from LinkedIn for business-to-business companies.

Your LinkedIn profile is typical of one that has been developed using the LinkedIn profile wizard. It is, in essence, an online resume. It’s a good resume, to be sure, but not a useful sales and marketing tool. As with most profiles of this type, your profile is missing several opportunities to encourage connection and engagement with prospective buyers, partners or other target audiences.

Missed opportunity number 1: Visibility

There are two important contributions a profile makes to your visibility on LinkedIn. One is the use of keywords to ensure you show up in a search for the terms a potential buyer might use to find you. Looking at your profile we do not see any keywords that are likely to be used by your company’s customers or prospects.

The second contribution a profile makes to your visibility is a headline that positions you as an expert on the appropriate topic. A “headline” is the phrase that shows up underneath your name on the profile:

Again, your current headline is fine for a resume, but prospects want to know how you can help them. The headline is important because the three lines you see above are often all a prospect gets to see to decide if he/she wants to know more about you or not. For example, when someone is looking through a list of members in a LinkedIn group, this is what they will see.

Compare that headline to the following. Which one tells you more about why you might want to connect with the person?

Missed opportunity number 2: Relevance

B2B buyers go to LinkedIn primarily to connect with people who can help them do their jobs better. If you want your prospects to connect and engage with you, you have to tell them why they should. The best way to do this is to talk about the benefits you can deliver. This is best done in the Experience section because this text can also help you show up in LinkedIn searches.

Here are a couple of examples of “positions” that emphasize benefits to the prospective buyer.

Missed opportunity number 3: Credibility

The experience section also give you an opportunity to remove perceived risk on the part of the buyers by offering proof that what you say you’ve done is true. Case studies, testimonials, awards and media coverage work well.

Again, here are some examples.

Missed opportunity number 4: Personality

Buyers come to LinkedIn to connect and engage with people. Every interaction on LinkedIn should show some personality, and the profile is a great place to start. It makes you seem more human, more approachable. The key to this is to tell your story in a friendly, confident tone; and to write the way you talk. This means, of course, that your profile should be written in first person.

Here are a couple of examples:

Summary

So, you see, your current profile is a fine online resume and useful if your LinkedIn objective is to find a new job. However, if you want to use LinkedIn as part of your sales and marketing programs, there is much to be gained by a profile makeover.And have no fear, potential employers can find you if you want them to.

Best regards,

P.S. The rest of your LinkedIn team needs a profile makeover too.While looking at your profile, we took a quick look at the profiles of some of your likely LinkedIn marketing team members. They too are missing opportunities and making LinkedIn success harder on all of you.Successful LinkedIn participation begins with great profiles and gets completely derailed with bad ones. If you’re serious about being successful on LinkedIn let us help. Contact me today about a profile makeover.